Christiane Taubira

Christiane Marie Taubira (French: [kʁistjan maʁi tobiʁa]; born 2 February 1952, in Cayenne, French Guiana) is a French politician who on 15 May 2012, was appointed Minister of Justice of France in the Ayrault Government under President François Hollande. She resigned from office on 27 January 2016.[1]

Christiane Taubira
Minister of Justice
In office
16 May 2012 – 27 January 2016
Prime MinisterJean-Marc Ayrault
Manuel Valls
Preceded byMichel Mercier
Succeeded byJean-Jacques Urvoas
Deputy of the National Assembly
for French Guiana's 1st constituency
In office
2 April 1993 – 16 June 2012
Preceded byÉlie Castor
Succeeded byGabriel Serville
Personal details
Born (1952-02-02) 2 February 1952
Cayenne, French Guiana
Political partyWalwari
Other political
affiliations		Radical Party of the Left
Alma materPanthéon-Assas University

Early life

Christiane Taubira was born on 2 February 1952 in Cayenne, French Guiana, France. She studied economics at Panthéon-Assas University.[2] Taubira is the sister of French politician Jean-Marie Taubira, who is Secretary General of the Guianese Progressive Party.

Political career

Having served as President of the Walwari Party, Mme Taubira from 1993 served as a Deputy to the French National Assembly, being re-elected in 1997. Non-affiliated in 1993, she then voted in favour of the conservative Edouard Balladur to form a Cabinet of ministers in 1993. In 1994, she secured election as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP),[3][4] being the fourth on the Énergie Radicale list led by Bernard Tapie. In June 1997, she then joined the Socialist Party (PS), and then-Prime Minister Lionel Jospin (PS) appointed her to head a government commission into Gold mining in Guiana.

In 2002, Mme Taubira was a Left Radical Party (PRG) candidate for the Presidency, although she did not belong to the Party; she won 2.32% of the votes. After 2002, she became Vice-President of the Left Radical Party. She was elected as its Deputy on 16 June 2002, and chose to join the Socialist group in the Assembly.

  • Member of European parliament: 1994–1999. Elected in 1994.
  • Member of the National Assembly of France for French Guiana (1st constituency): 1993–2012. Elected in 1993, re-elected in 1997, 2002, 2007.
  • Regional Councillor of French Guiana: 2010-2012 (Resignation).

Having been nominated Minister of Justice by Jean-Marc Ayrault, following the victory of François Hollande in the 2012 Presidential Elections, she was supposed to work with Junior Minister Delphine Batho. However, their relationship quickly broke down being unable to share responsibilities. After the June 2012 Legislative elections, Delphine Batho was moved to become Minister of Ecology replacing Nicole Bricq, leaving Mme Christiane Taubira in charge of the Ministry of Justice. She resigned her position as Minister of Justice on 27 January 2016 after a disagreement with President Hollande over policies related to the treatment of French Nationals convicted of terrorism.[5]

Taubira was the driving force behind a 21 May 2001 law that recognises the Atlantic slave trade and slavery as a crime against humanity. In 2013, she voiced her support for land reforms in France's Caribbean territories as compensation for slavery.[6]

As Minister of Justice, Taubira formally introduced the electoral promise of François Hollande.[7] It became Law 2013-404, which legalised same-sex marriage in France.

Taubira resigned in January 2016 after openly disagreeing with the French president's proposal to strip French nationality from dual-citizens who are convicted of terrorism, a measure championed by Hollande in the wake of the terrorist attacks that shook Paris on 13 November.[5] One week later, she published Murmures à la jeunesse, a book about this proposal.[8]

Personal life
Christiane Taubira at Festival America 2018, in Vincennes.

Taubira was married twice.[9] She has four children with her second husband, Roland Delannon.[9][10][11] They are divorced.[9][11] Delannon is a separatist politician who founded the Decolonization and Social Emancipation Movement; he was jailed for 18 months for planning to blow up an oil and gas facility in the 1980s.[10][11]

Victim of racist attacks

Like other women ministers, Christiane Taubira faces many racist and sexist insults.[12]

She allowed the Guyanese political party Walwari to make a direct citation in the Cayenne criminal court against Anne-Sophie Leclère, a candidate for the Front National who relayed on her Facebook page in October 2013 a racist cartoon comparing Christine Taubira to a monkey. She was sentenced to nine months in prison and five years of ineligibility by the court before the judgement was quashed on appeal as Walwari's action was deemed invalid.[13] In September 2016, the Paris criminal court, which had opened an investigation when the facts were revealed, found Anne-Sophie Leclère guilty of the crime of public insult and sentenced her to a suspended fine of 3,000 euros. In November 2013, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights condemned the comments, which it considered as racist attacks against Christine Taubira, in particular on the cover of the extreme right-wing weekly Minute, which featured her photo with the caption: "Clever as a monkey, Taubira finds the banana". The weekly rejects the accusation of racism, arguing that it merely used two French expressions, "the second of which - the part about the banana - is familiarly used to describe a person in good shape". The minister denounced comments of "extreme violence" denying her "belonging to the human race". The weekly's editor was sentenced to a fine of 10,000 euros for its front page on 30 October 2014. The public prosecutor's office has appealed against the fine as it was too lenient.

Honours

Books
  • (in French) L'Esclavage raconté à ma fille ("Slavery explained to my daughter"),Paris, Bibliophane, coll. « Les mots à coeur », 2002 (réimpr. 2006), 165 p. (ISBN 2-86970-064-4 et 2-86970-122-5).
  • (in French) Codes noirs : de l'esclavage aux abolitions, Paris, Dalloz, coll. « A savoir », 2006, 150 p. (ISBN 2-247-06857-X) (introduction).
  • (in French) Rendez-vous avec la République ("Meeting with the Republic"), Paris, La Découverte, coll. « Cahiers libres », 2006, 195 p. (ISBN 978-2-7071-5091-2).
  • (in French) Égalité pour les exclus : le politique face à l’histoire et à la mémoire coloniales, Paris, Temps Présent, 2009, 93 p. (ISBN 978-2-916842-01-1).
  • (in French) Mes météores : combats politiques au long cours, Paris, Flammarion, 2012, 551 p. (ISBN 978-2-08-127895-0).
  • (in French) Paroles de liberté ("Words of Freedom"), Paris, Flammarion, coll. " Café Voltaire ", 2014, 138 p. (ISBN 978-2-08-133688-9).
  • (in French) Murmures à la jeunesse, 2016.
  • (in French) Nous habitons la Terre, 2017, REY, 128 p. (ISBN 978-2848766119).
  • (in French) Nuit d'épine ("Thorny Night"), Paris, Plon, 2019, 288 p. (ISBN 978-2259278652).
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References
  1. "France - French Justice Minister Christiane Taubira resigns". France 24. Retrieved 27 January 2016.
  2. Faure, Sonya (13 June 2012). "La fusée Christiane". Libération (in French).
  3. "Christiane TAUBIRA-DELANNON". Your MEPs. European Parliament. Retrieved 14 February 2011.
  4. Tagliabue, John (3 April 2002). "France's First-Round Presidential Ballot Takes Shape". The New York Times. Retrieved 14 February 2011.
  5. "france 24 - French Justice Minister Christiane Taubira resigns after terror law row - France 24". France 24. Retrieved 15 February 2016.
  6. "France - French minister wants land for slaves' descendants". France 24. Archived from the original on 26 April 2017. Retrieved 15 February 2016.
  7. "Unpopular French President Nicolas Sarkozy Desperately Woos Les Gais". Queerty.com. Retrieved 6 May 2012.
  8. Wieder, Thomas (31 January 2016). "Le réquisitoire de Christiane Taubira contre la déchéance de nationalité". Le Monde. Retrieved 1 February 2016.
  9. Giroudon, Baptiste (31 December 2013). "CHEZ LA MINISTRE DE LA JUSTICE, EN GUYANE: CHRISTIANE TAUBIRA, LA BLESSURE DERRIÈRE LE SOURIRE". Paris Match. Retrieved 1 February 2016.
  10. "Roland Delannon, la "blessure" de Christiane Taubira". Le Figaro. 3 January 2014. Retrieved 1 February 2016.
  11. "Christiane Taubira "mariée" à un "terroriste" : l'intox de Marine Le Pen". Metro News. 14 March 2013. Retrieved 1 February 2016.
  12. Hélène Pillon, « Ces femmes politiques dans le viseur des racistes », sur lexpress.fr, 13 novembre 2013 (consulté le 10 août 2015).
  13. « Anne-Sophie Leclère, ex-candidate FN qui avait comparé Christiane Taubira à un singe, condamnée à une amende avec sursis » [archive], huffiningtonpost.fr, 28 septembre 2016 (consulté le 14 février 2017).
Political offices
Preceded by
Michel Mercier		 Minister of Justice
2012–2016		 Succeeded by
Jean-Jacques Urvoas
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